Emmerdale’s Roxy Shahidi Opens Up About Her Pregnancy

Roxy Shahidi – the real face behind Emmerdale‘s Leyla Harding – has recently announced that she’s going to become a mother and we are SO happy for her.

Sharing the news with OK! magazine, the actress revealed her and her husband Arsher Ali’s excitement but admitted she was seriously shocked: ‘I was absolutely terrified when I saw the test was positive…’

The 34 year old continued: ‘I assumed it would take us ages but it only took a few weeks. When the pregnancy test was positive I went into a bit of shock!’

She also revealed it was her colleague and mum of two Charley Webb who predicted the actress was pregnant before she even did the test: ‘We had been working together and she called me when I got home and said my boobs gave it away.’

The couple are due to welcome their first child in January 2018 and have announced they’re having a little girl.

Arsher said: ‘We’re having a girl. We both wanted to find out so we has the NIPT [non-invasive prenatal testing blood test at 12 weeks.] There hasn’t been a girl in my family for 20 years so everyone on my side is pretty excited.’

And they HAVE found a name, but have said they’re keeping it secret until their daughter’s arrival.

‘I’ve got good core muscles because I’ve done yoga for years, so my bump is quite small and tidy… The producers have been really kind to me. They’ve been careful not to push me too hard.’

She continued: ‘Part of me was a bit worried about stressing out the baby during the emotional scenes, but she was fine I think… I’m sure as I get bigger it will get harder to hide it on camera, but we’ll have to resort to the old tricks of holding a laundry basket in front of the bump or wearing big earring to distract from it.’